Indianapolis Times, Volume 36, Number 213, Indianapolis, Marion County, 16 January 1925 — Page 4

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The Indianapolis Times ROY W. HOWARD, President. FELIX F. BRUNER, Editor. WM. A. MAYBORN, Bus. Mgr. Member of the Scrlpps-Howard Newspaper Alliance * • Client of the United Press, the NEA Service and the Scrlpps-Palne Service. • • * Member of the Audit Bureau of Circulation*. Published dally except Sunday, by Indianapolis Times Publishing Cos.. 214-220 W. Maryland St., Indianapolis • * •Subscription Rates: Indianapolis—Ten Cents a Week. Elsewhere —Twelve Cents a Week. • • PHONE—MA in 3600.

But if we walk in the light, as He is in the light, we have fellowship one with another.—l John 1:7. . God's glory is His Ward Beecher. IF YOU WERE JUDGE jfpnOUß MEN, aU former letter carriers, stood before 4 ' Judge [r I Winslow in NeiY York and confessed thefts from the Sales of stamps from a postoffice aggregating SIOO each. The normal thing for a judge to do, under the circumstances, would be to sentence the men to terms in penitentiaries. ; This judge didn’t. He inquired and found that one of the receiving $2,000 B year after twenty-four years in the postal service, was trying io support a wife and six children on th&t income. Others, receiving but SI,BOO a year, were tackling similar fenancial problems. “This is tragic,” exclaimed Judge Winslow. “These men pre obviously not of the criminal class and I am not going to add them to that class.” V The judge asked where the men found employment after leaving the Government service and volunteered to see their employers and try to get better jobs for the postmen. That was an unusual decision on the part of a merciful judge. Judge Winslow’s action will serve a useful functio#in more ways than one. It put the situation of the underpaid postal employes in newspapers all over the land. It stirred up a Reeling of shame on the part of the public that its own employes were so miserably paid. His action may serve in a less useful way, if other postal employes, in a service where honesty is positively essential, are tempted to do what their fellows did for the sake of eking out livings for their families. Judge Winslow’s leniency may serve ’the public badly in this respect. But in this case, too, the responsibility comes back to the public and the Government. It is something worth thinking Bbout. What would you have done, if you had been on Judge Winslow’s bench when those four former postmen confessed? UTILITIES AND COURTS # 4 * . ST APPEARS thaf the public utility regulation question is rapidly approaching a showdown in Indiana. The bill introduced by Senator Barker designed to prevent utilities from appealing to Federal district courts for higher rates was a step in that direction. The action of public service companies in taking their cases ’to the Federal Court when they are not satisfied with the ruling of the State commission has resulted in trimming the power of the latter down to the point where it is almost useless. The situation resolves itself into this: The public service ; commission may give utilities what they want and get away with it. If it rules against the utilities the ruling means nothing. State regulation is much to be desired. With the consolidation of public utilities and the erection of central power ! plants serving wide areas, this appears to be the only practical ’type of regulation. But the utilities have found a way to get around it through the Federal Courts. Senator Barker’s bill provides that appeal can be taken | from a decision of the commission only to State courts and that Uhe utilities after having gone through the State courts would jthen have the usual right to go to the United States Supreme ■ Court. 1 There appears to be some doubt as to the constitutionality j of such a bill, but certainly something in this direction is badly needed.

What I Want of the Law AN EDITORIAL

mDO not want the law to do things for nie that I can and ought to do for myself. I do not want the law to be my conscience, or my school teacher, or my religion. But I want. the law to protect me Ask The Times You can ret an answer to any question of faet or information by writinc to The Indianapolis Times Washinrton Bureau, 1323 New York Are., Washington. p. C.. lneloelny 9 cents in stamps for reply. Medical, letral and marital advice cannot be riven, nor can extended research be undertaken. All other questions will reoeive a personal reply. Unsigned requests cannot be answered. All letters are confidential —Editor. PpWsre there any difficulties In the way of Intense heat encountered in digging the Simplon Tunnel? Yes, in places the tunnel passes 7.000 feet below the mass of the mountain, and both hot and cold springß were encountered; the internal heat was so great that at times the men could only work when sprayed with cold water. How much land has the Government bought for Eastern and Southern national forests? acres. What kinds of chickens are known as ornamental breeds? The Polish, Exhibition Games, Silkies, Sultans, Frizzles, and Bantams are representative ornamental breeds. What are the meanings of the following names? Alice, a princess. Eleanor, light. Mabel, for love. Mildred, gently strict. Sophia, wise. Is the French horrt a difficult wind instrument to learn to play? Yes, it is one of the most difficult of the wind instruments. What is the maximum amount of cotton one person can pick in a day? , About 500 pounds. What two States produce the most poultry? lowa produces the most, though Illinois runs her a close second. What woods are used for banjos? i ** th ia^ Udxd. '

where I am helpless, and to do the same for other men. I want it to stand between me and the man who would put a knife in my back. I want it to guard my property when I am away. I want it to walk with me when the night is dark, not stand at my elbow and nag me in broad daylight. I want to think of the law as something big and strong, designed to deal with big strong hazards. I want to reverence it as something that I can look up to, something that challenges my respect and support m DON’T want to have the law become a common scold, a thorn In my side, a pettifogging, browbeating hanger-on, for whom familiarity is bound to breed contempt. I do not want to contemplate the law as emanating from a hodgepodge of little thoughts and narrow ideas, but as representing mature, deliberate judgment. I do not want the law ground out as so much flour, In a mechanical way, with quantity production as the goal to be sought. I want it to come slowly, and after careful sifting, and with the idea of quality uppermost. I do not want Legislatures to make law simply because they can, or because they think so much of an output is necessary. I want them to <io some pruning, now and then, just as I do with my rose bushes. I do not want'the law-enforcing officers to regard everybody they suspect as guilty, but do a thorough job, with justice as the great ideal. I* do not want the prosecutors to regard everybody they try as convicted, until the verdict is In. I want the machinery of the law to function in such a way that people can. have confidence in the result, and there will be less agitation, and less, excuse for agitation, to have the work undone. Finally, I want no law and no kind of law enforcement for the other fellow that I am not willing to obey , and accept for myself. What Is the plural of ‘‘aide-de--oamp"? Hie plural is “aides-de-camp,** not j i

WET AND DRY BATTLE TO RESULT FROM SCOTT CASE

■■ ' ’ y y ' - Prohibition Controversy Looms Following Drinking Revelations. By CHARLES P. STEWART yiHA Service Writer crra ASHINGTON, Jan. |\jy of the w q/rst congressional I fights in this country’s history is impending. It probably will settle the prohibition question for good and all. The Frank D. Scott divorce case brought the situation about. Individqals mentioned in connection with this case may or may not be able to es.tablish satisfactory personal alibis, but the Nation’s lawmakers are very well convinced the country is going to accept as true the picture presented of official society life in the capital—a life not only extremely gay but unrestrainedly wet. There are three kinds of Senators and Representatives: 1. The wets. ' 2. Those who Vote dry'-but drink wet. 3. The honest-to-goodness drys. The Scott case’testimony pleases the wets. They consider it a black eye for prohibition. Vote Dry and Drink Those who vote dry but drink wet care nothing about prohibition in principle, of course. They support dry measures and .oppose wet ones only because they believe it is good for their political health. * \ j. ■ .... Probably they would reverse themselves with as- good or a better will if they thought a majority of their constituents would approve. The Scott case testimony does not pain them on account of its disclosure of the fact that the very men who make the country’" laws numerously violate the prohitiition law. They know that already. They are merely scared lest they be found out. The honest-to-goodness drys are thoroughly enraged. They realize that drinking Congressmen and other Government officials make prohibition ridiculous. Their resentment against bibulousness in official circles has been Increasing for a long time as they came more and more fully to find out how general it was. The Scott case has brought thiS anger to a head. Impeachment Proposed One plan has taken pretty definite shape. This Is the impeachment and expulsion of any Senator or Representative who can be proved to be a consumer of anything with an alcoholic content in excess of % of 1 per cent. In dozens of cases such proof will be easy enough to get. But the question is: Proof having been furnished, will it be possible to get the necessary votes to throw the offenders out? At first thought It may seem as if the answer should be —yes. The dry majority in both houses is a liberal one. The trouble is. those who vote dry but drink wet probably will have to be counted out. They’re dry on any question of wet-and-dry lawmaking but they hardly can be expected to vote to expel themselves from Congress. The honeet-to-goodnesa drys and the 'wet drys, taken together, are in a majority, but how about the hon-est-too-goodness drys counted alone? It’s more than doubtful if there’s a majority of them. Nevertheless, it’s practically certain they will make the attempt. The leaders are counting heads now. They’re doing their best to get pledges from doubtful ones. Some are promising. Many are sidestepping. It’s too soon yet to tell how the opposing forces will line up. Big Fight Ahead When the dry leaders are convinced their group has reached its maximum of obtainable strength they will launch their attack. That there will be a terrific fight goes without saying. Even an attempt at the expulsion of dozens and scores of members of both the Senate and House of Representatives of the United Statjes wITI be a sensation of proportions to compare with the outbreak of a war. An attempt to expel nobody but the avowedly wet wets would be that. If the honest-to-goodness drys succeed they'll have scored a victory for prohibition that will count. If they fail—if Congress virtually admits that it’s dry for the country but intends to stay wet so far as itself is concerned —it will be about the finish of so much as a semblance of prohibition enforcement, whether the'law stays in the code book or not. Passing By By Hal COCHRAN Let’s ride in a train for a moment or two, and gaze at the things that pass, Let’s leisurely look at the overhead blue and drink in the green of the grass. The work is of nature; the job is well done. There’s restfulness blanketed wide. What Joy to Just look at things under the sun as we whiz on through space in our ride. Ah, there Is a hut that Is loost In the trees. Perhaps it’s a tumbledown shack. But happy are folks who are dwelling in these, with only sky at their back. A youngster is roaming a long, Artnding lane, with fish pole and line, as a rule. He lingers and stares at the whizzing-by train; then travels along to his pool. The open and wide has a call of its own. It’s only yourself that you rob if never you hie to the country, alone, and rest, far away from the mob. , (Copyright, 1926, NEA Service, Inc.) ' . ■■ A Public Utility It seems probable that broadcasting is permanently established as a public necessity and may be considered as indispensable in the average home as the telephone. The broadcasting of the Republican and Democratic conventions demonstrated its value In enabling the public to keep in immediate touch with Important events of, general interest.—Repoii of the Commissioner of Navigation,

THE INDIANAPOLIS TIMES

RIGHT HERE IN INDIANA By GAYLORD NELSON

Instruction St 1 TATE SENATOR FRED M. DICKERMAN introduced a i__J bill Wednesday providing that pupils—at the option pf parents —may be released from public schools two hours a. week to receive religious instructions, for which school credit will be given. Unquestionably there is need for ethical instruction to young people.

The lack of such training is evident in every court in the country. About as far as many parents go in inculcating morals is to utter a few peevish don’ts. Those are insufficient to form the back gr o und to lives of moral grandeur when the children grow up. Consequently optional religious instruction in con-

NELSON

nection with the schools has been adopted in many places—and has many enthusiastic advocates. It solves a difficult problem foe many parents. More and more all difficult and unpleasant problems In child training are being turned over to the public schools for solution. “Teach it in the schools’’ Is the invariable suggestion, whether the problem is fire Income Tax Reduction of the income tax was effected by the revenue act of 1924. A rate reduction, however, was not! the only benefit afforded by this legislation. Increase in the exemption for married persons and heads of families, a 25 per cent reduction on “earned income)” and other changes are of immediate interest to every taxpayer. As an aid. therefore, in th epreparation of Income tax returns for the year 1924, the Bureau of Internal Revenue has prepared a series of articles on the new act and the regulations governing its administration, of which this is the first. The salaried man, wage earner, professional and .business man—ln fact every class of taxpayer—will be fully informed of their requirements and privileges. are advised to preserve these armies as a guide fti the making of their returns. Returns are required of every single person whose net income for 1924 was SI,OOO or more or whose gross Income was $5,000 or more and of every married person living with husband or wife whose net Income was $2,500 or more or whose gross income was $5,000 or more. Divorces are married persons separated by mutual consent as classed as single persons. Married persons living together are required to file a return If their aggregate net income was $2,600 or more or the aggregate gross Income was $5,000 or more. Husband and wife living together may Include the income of each in a single joint return, or each may file separate returns showing the income of each. Where a point return is filed, the tax Is computed on the aggregate Income and all deductions and credits to which either is entitled is taken from such aggregate incomu. If a wife does file a separate return or join with her husband in a return, the husband Is required to Include In his return ail Income received by the wife In payment of wages, salary, or from the sale of products of her labor. In the returns of married persons must be icluded also the Income of dependent minor children. It should be remembered that a husband and wife living together need make no return unless their aggregate net Income for 1924 was $2,500 or more or the aggregate gross income was $5,000 or more. Last year returns were required of such married persons whose aggregate net income was $2,000 or more. Across the Sea by Air Trans-Atlantic air-mail service is undoubtedly coming. American business men already have taken the necessary preliminary steps to Inaugurate its actual operation. They are deterred only by immediate inability to buy their prospective fleet at reasonable prices.—Senator Copeland (Democrat) New York. More Advice for Farmers What the farmer needs to do is to organize his cooperative business on a better basis, to exercise a higher measure of good judgment, to display a greater amount of painstaking and skillful management, to be more punctual and prompt; In other words, to prove himself a better business man in every respect—Senator Bruce (Democrat) Maryland.

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prevention, safety, or patriotism. This Is a flattering testimonial to the schools. However, raising children is primarily an individual not a collective social responsibility. The schools cannot carry the whole burden. The job also requires faithful, willing parents. Lobbyists EIEUTENANT GOVERNOR VAN ORMAN has announced that lobbyists will not be allowed on the floor of the Senate during sessions. Speaker Leslie will similarly curb them in the House. The lot of the poor lobbyist in these degenerate days should wring a tear from a kiln-dried brick. Formerly he was an imperious ringmaster. He strode into the Le.islatlve arena, cracked his whip and bills leaped through hoops or slunk back to their cages. That Golden Age is past. Now the lobbyist must procure a license —at a cost of $2 —before he can ply his trade. What an indignity to inflict on the sensitive nature of a professional fixer! The rule just promulgated is a more serious blow to his dignity. No longer can he appear on the floor and slay a legislator’ with a meaning look. He must slip the disobedient solon knock-out drops elsewhere. Still ‘ restrictions have . not eliminated lobbying. Nor will they. Special interests and organizations sponsoring hobbies will always have agents present to influence legislative action. The Legislature Itself must always do the lobbying for the interests of all the people. Only to the extent that it does will it earn its pay.

Poolrooms Irri'l WO Indianapolis youths—lß j | and 16 years old —are In city i■ J prison for murder and robbery. They confessed to the holdup and fatal shooting of a Lexington Ave. street car conductor last tveek. They needed money, which they tried to raise with a stolen gun. They were successful. The attempt netted them $7 in cash and a murder charge. The boys became acquainted while loafing around poolrooms. It was "rom a poolroom they started on their short career of brigandage. Also it was in a poolroom that officer located and arrested one of them after the crime. Pool may be a stimulating physical and intellectual recreation. Nevertheless its most ardent defender must admit that the poolroom graduates more outlaws than moral leaders. The average hole-in-the-wall poolroom contributes very little to the bodily, mental or ethical development of society. # Frequently it is nothing more than a dive, a hang-out, a training school for shiftlessness and. lawlessness. There idle, wayward youths loaf until their criminal pinfeathers sprout. Perhaps Indianapolis Is no more speckled with these unsavory places than other cities. However It has enough to supply the local demand for bandits. They must be disinfected before any real city cleanup is possible. Interest S'"*™! IX persons attended the open forum at the Chamber of Commerce the other night to discuss proposals regarding the State primary law. The attendance figure includes those there In official capacity. Even a vivid Imagination couldn’t term it a mass meeting. Yet it was called for common discussion of a live subject of current public interest. In view of this practically unanimous lack of Interest one might conclude that the flame of community spirit burns low In Indianapollr.. Legitimate causes might have been responsible for the painfully slender tffmout at this particular assembly. But other public forums at the Chamber of Commerce In recent months drew equally crushing emptiness. The fact that there Is no public Interest here in such meetings is inescapable. , Fifty years ago open discussion of any subject from the Nebular Hypothesis to the weather would have drawn a capacity crowd in this city. Today no serious debate draws a handful. Yet Union Station would be jammed to greet Jackie Coogan. Are we too absorbed in private affairs to take interest -In public matters? Is' it lack of civic spirit or just a bad attack of inertia?

THE DEATHS OF CHILDREN

BY HERBERT QUICK * | N Mexico last year many [ I more than half of all de&ths ■ J were those of children. Mexico is becoming civilized; for we learn that: the government is stirred by this high death rate among the little ones. The fact that the government has collected the statistic# shows progress. Its concern over them shows it still more plainly. Such as the showing is, let us see what it means, not only as to Mexico, but the world. It means one or both of two things—that the people of Mexico are still on a low plane of civilization or . are ground down by poverty. In the Mexican case, it probably means both. .Mfhere the people are poor, their children die in childhr**) "in e numbers, If great poverty prevails. As the Scriptures say, “The rich man’s wealth is his strong city; the destruction of the poor is their poverty.’ With Intelligent and highly civilized peoples, however, in some cases, the death rate among the children is not high even among the very poor. It is so in certain congested sections of our large cities where sanitation and to some extent diet Is looked after By governmental or philanthropic agencies. Rate In Proportion Infant mortality is jargely in proportion too the birtivrate. The more children a women has the more cf them die. This comes from several causes. The chief of them is that on the average people so low in intelligence as to lack all foresight in the matter of,becoming parents havj the largest families. There are exceptions to this rule, but they are not so numerous as to affect the statistics much. They may lack foresight and Its resultant control over the birth-rate

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The Annual Plague

because of hereditary moronism. Morons breed like flies. They may lack it because of a faulty education or none at all. They may lack it because they like in a savage or half-civilized society. In all such Tom Sims Says In a Kentucky village they stopped a clock’s striking because it' kept the people awake, but they could let it strike during church. Lovers of Swiss cheese will enjoy learning almost a million pounds has been imported. Don’t let the mice hear about this. If you don’t care what you say you can say the Utah people snowed in four days were under the weather. Missing California messenger and SIO,OOO was caught in South America. Cops claim that was carrying it too far. More girls are taking up basketball, perhaps because it is such excellent training for bargain counter rushes. If a Chicago woman didn’t kiss her husband for nine years, and she says she didn’t, how did she get money away from him? Expedition has gone to the Malay Peninsula to study wild men. Don’t have to ga that far to study wild women. Trainers say lions are the only wild animals capable of affection, but how about bedbugs? Doctors say five people in New York who thought they ate some good oysters, didn’t. “We have, too many single men,” finds a Denver minister. An old maid tells us the statement Is correct. • (Copyright. 1925, NEA Service, Inc.)

FRIDAY, JAN. 16,1925

case3 their birth-rate is' high and the death-rate among their children is correspondingly high. The Chinese are the classic instance of the prevalence of all these factors making for a high birth-rate. These factors must affect the future population of the United States as well. In *such a Nation as ours the Government will look more and more to the saving of the lives of the children. Thus sanitation and the betterment of diet, more or less enforced, will gradually prevent the deaths of children In large families. This will save many splendid children; but in the long run it will give the advantage in the struggle for existence to strains of people who lack the intelligence to control their birth-rate. Natural Limit It will remove the fifttural limit which moronism places upon its own multiplication. It is one of the disadvatages of philanthropic activities among the submerged tenth and of state effectiveness in sanitation that it creates an advantage for hereditary weakness In the matter of exemption from its ow’n natural penalties, which tends to destroy the very civilization itself through the slow deterioration of the population through the survival of thd unfit. The Mexican death-rate among the children is tragic; but the thinker may get what comfort he cin tiom the thought that in the main it prevents the increase of the unfit. The highest task of the Mexican government should be to extirpate the poverty, do away with the ignorance from which comes Insanitary conditions, and to see to It that the demonstrably unfit do not have children. Thus Mexico could save her children and gradually save her-' self from having the millions who should not be born. The reader may draw his own prescription for the United States.